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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29751975">The Living Ghost</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Astroblaze/pseuds/Astroblaze'>Astroblaze</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>(Almost) Love Confession, Dorks in Love, F/M, Falling In Love, Heartbeats, Major Character Injury (mentioned), Metahumans, Modern Fantasy, Technobabble, excerpt</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 22:42:36</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,350</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29751975</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Astroblaze/pseuds/Astroblaze</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After the chaos at Bethesda Fountain and everything that followed, John invites Vanessa to his home to review his dissection and analysis of the serums he took. Hero work isn't the only thing on the pair's minds, however.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>John Reidenbach/Vanessa Murphy (OC), Original Male Character/Original Female Character</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Living Ghost</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>John and Vanessa are originally from a group text roleplay named Collateral, which was hosted on IwakuRoleplay forums from April 2018 to January 2021 before we ran out of motivation and let it die. As I was already planning to rework John's character and that of the characters I made and played along with him, I've been adopting some of the major characters from the roleplay (with the players' permission of course) and reshaping them as needed to fit into the alternate, metahuman-populated Earth of my WIP story-universe. (Vanessa was originally created and played by my friend Gands, and when the roleplay was running, we'd been working on a romantic subplot between these two.) Meanwhile, I discovered this scene that I had shorthanded and stored as a potential sequence for the roleplay buried in a folder stuffed with similarly shorthanded scenes and figured it'd be a fun one to write full-prose.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Vanessa watched from the back seat as her limousine cruised down the quiet suburban street, her computer left forgotten in her lap in favor of the modest homes that lined the pavement. Though she had known that John lived a far more average life than she did, the entirely unremarkable nature of his civilian life hadn’t quite registered until seeing his neighborhood in this moment. She smiled to herself as she pondered the mutant, warm-featured and smiling, with such an air of homely comfort even under the intensely powerful entity known as Spectre.</p>
<p>The heroine stirred as the expensive black vehicle pulled up along the curb in front of a modest home that bore little distinction from every other on the street: a quiet structure framed in gray siding, cut stone, and white-painted wood that radiated simple comfort, with a single-car garage set to its left, concrete driveway cutting through the well-managed lawn and paneled sidewalk to join with the street, and a large paned window to the right of the door. A much smaller second level nestled under charcoal-tiled eaves, with matching windows to let the light in.</p>
<p>Pushing open the door as the limousine shifted into park, Vanessa tidied away her equipment and stepped out of the vehicle, tossing a lock of wavy golden hair back over her shoulder and adjusting the collar of her fine leather jacket. With a brief directory gesture to the driver, she stepped up onto the sidewalk, walking up the driveway and along an adjoining footpath up onto the porch. As sensitive ears picked up the low hum of her ride shifting back and starting off down the road, she opened the screen and rapped her knuckles against the sturdy frame of the wooden door.</p>
<p>A moment passed, then another. Brown eyes glanced instinctively up and down the street, then the metahuman turned her attention to the doorknob, bracing herself to force the door open if needed. The handle turned easily in her hand, however, the door swinging open as she stepped into the home and pushed it shut behind her. The lamp hanging central in the front entrance hung dark on its chain, but sunlight cascaded into the warm gray hall from the window she had noticed from the house’s exterior, which she could now see looked over the living room. A decently sized television stood on a low wooden table lined with books and movies, just barely visible over the back of a plain sofa. Leaning into the room, she also noticed a simple wire hutch set against the back wall atop a wooden cabinet, though its inhabitant wasn’t presently visible.</p>
<p>Vanessa glimpsed a staircase right of the back door at the end of the hall, ascending rightward into darkness, but what more drew her attention was the light cascading from both entrances into the lefthand space, which upon investigation was evidently the kitchen. Cheery canary-painted walls provided a burst of color in the abode’s otherwise muted palette, between chestnut-stained cabinets, stainless steel implements, and granite countertop. A matching island stood central to the space with a few metal-framed stools set around it, its granite surface glossy like the rest of the beautifully maintained space. A plain wooden door rested in the wall immediately opposite the arch through which Vanessa had entered, but another on the far end of the kitchen, nestled between the fridge and the far archway, stood ajar, a bit of golden light creeping through the gap and an ever-so-faint hint of movement whispering at the very edge of her enhanced perception.</p>
<p>Scooting past the island, Vanessa stepped over to the door, reaching for the edge of its nondescript frame. Drawing open the door revealed a dark stairwell illuminated only by a naked golden bulb over the door but with white light emanating faintly from its foot.</p>
<p>As Vanessa descended the steps, the light grew brighter until she stood in an area, very different from the rest of the home, that she could only describe as a makeshift laboratory. Strips hanging intermittently from the ceiling cast the entire space in cold white light, from concrete walls and floor to the metal tables and shelves that lined the left- and righthand walls, cluttered with all manner of instruments, gadgets, notebooks, and jars containing substances Vanessa couldn’t place. The most striking feature, however, stood at the back of the busy room: a huge circular gateway, opening into a small, cylindrical concrete room, plated with dark burnished steel interrupted only by orange lights, currently dull, welded at regular intervals along its perimeter. At the moment, a stepladder was placed almost central in the gateway, debris and tools scattered around its base and the lower half of a familiar person, dressed in a blue-patterned flannel shirt with jeans and work boots, standing on the top step, head and arms buried in the gateway’s guts.</p>
<p>Vanessa inclined her head curiously toward the figure. “John?”</p>
<p>“Vanessa!” Though muffled behind layers of metal and a hint of protective equipment, the mutant’s voice remained cheerful as ever. “Glad you could make it. Just give me a second- here-” His torso twisted below the gateway as he seemed to wrench something into place with a grunt.</p>
<p>The heroine took a few cautious steps closer, both intrigued and unnerved by her ally’s project. “What <em>is</em> this?”</p>
<p>“It’s my magnum opus. I call it INDIGO. In short, it’s the world’s first manmade ghost portal—and to my knowledge, still the only one. It’s a large part of why I have my powers, actually.”</p>
<p>Vanessa perked up; her ally’s unusual powerset had been a matter of interest to her nearly since she’d met him. “Really? How come?”</p>
<p>John chuckled, hands clad in elbow-length leather work-gloves finally emerging to steady himself on the ladder and the lip of his access hatch—Vanessa glimpsed a monkey wrench clasped in his left palm—as he began to step down the ladder. “Bit of a long story. Basically, had a bit of a mishap while turning it on—” As his feet settled on the concrete floor, he pulled down his ventilator mask with one hand as he lifted his safety goggles with the other, brushing back the dark brown locks that swept across his brow. Tossing the wrench into the toolbox at the base of the ladder, he lifted an easy smile to her. “Ended up tripping into the current,” he finished, massaging his hands in his gloves.</p>
<p>Vanessa paled, her mind conjuring a snapshot unbidden: the gateway ablaze with alien energy, John stumbling into its midst, his flesh seared- “Gods, that sounds horrible.”</p>
<p>John shrugged, stripping the leather gloves from his hands. Vanessa’s attention was again drawn to the fractal scars, stark white against his pale skin, that etched their way down the undersides of his arms, disappearing under his rolled-up sleeves from endpoints at his wrists. “That was nearly five years ago now. Had a brief stint in the hospital after it happened—just a couple days to make sure I wasn’t going to go into cardiac arrest, among other things—but I turned out just fine and that hasn’t changed yet.” He tapped his chest with his knuckles. “Ol’ ticker’s a fair bit slower than it used to be, but y’know, side-effects happen. It’s a new normal.”</p>
<p>He stepped past her, waving for her to follow. “But we can talk about that later. Come over here, I thought you’d find this interesting.”</p>
<p>Vanessa followed the other vigilante to one of the tables she had noticed earlier, where an assortment of chemistry sets clustered around notebooks and printed pages covered with his familiar scrawl.</p>
<p>John braced his hands against the edge of the table, hazel eyes dark and serious. “I’ve been running the whole battery on those serums I picked up at the park, and I’m not liking what I’m seeing.”</p>
<p>John proceeded into a full analysis of what he had found in the serums, from hazardous chemicals to traces of DNA matter from the meta-gene cluster, and other similarly problematic components, especially considering how and to whom the serums were being distributed at the time. Vanessa flipped through his notes as she listened to his explanations and added her own observations, growing increasingly grateful that Spectre had intervened so quickly, but all the while she found her gaze continuously drawn back to his chest, straining to catch a glimpse of his apparently unusual heartbeat.</p>
<p>John had focused entirely on the topic he had invited her over to discuss, but as he returned a test tube to its stand and shuffled his files into their folder, he glanced toward Vanessa and found her staring a hole through his shirt.</p>
<p>He couldn’t help an amused smile at her apparent fascination. “But I guess business isn’t the only matter of interest here.”</p>
<p>Vanessa started back and offered him a sheepish smile. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to stare.”</p>
<p>“It’s alright, I certainly understand your fascination. It’s my area as well, after all, and I know I spent a fair bit of time cataloging my observations once I’d gotten over the shock of the whole ordeal.” He lifted a hand to his shirt collar. “Do you want to hear for yourself?”</p>
<p>Vanessa perked up, but hesitation still outweighed her curiosity, if barely. “Is that alright with you?”</p>
<p>“Of course. I trust you.” Seeing the conflict in her eyes resolve itself, John stepped away from the cluttered table and unfastened the buttons of his flannel. Setting his hands on his hips, John tilted his head back to ensure her a clear angle, which conveniently contributed to keeping his gaze trained away from her.</p>
<p>Vanessa leaned in, gentle hands drawing his shirt open to expose a thin cotton undershirt, though she still kept a corner of her attention on him, making sure he stayed alright with how close she was getting. Returning her attention to his heart, Vanessa paused, gauging the form of his chest, then turned her head and pressed her ear to his chest. Her enhanced hearing picked up the deep, steady thump of his heartbeat immediately, his ghostly chill tickling her cheek even through the fabric of his shirt.</p>
<p>John felt her soft hair brush against his chin, the scent of her shampoo almost overwhelming his equally enhanced senses. Letting his eyes shutter, he focused on keeping his breathing deep and even as his heart threatened to race from her proximity. <em>‘C’mon, John, get it together.’</em></p>
<p>Oblivious to his internal struggles, Vanessa continued to listen to his heart, one finger absently tapping out its rhythm on her thigh. On a thought, she checked its rate against her watch, and it didn’t take long for her eyes to widen in amazement. “John, your heart is only beating thirty-two times a minute.”</p>
<p>He nodded. “And it beats even more slowly when I’m Spectre.” He decided not to add the part where her presence was currently making it beat harder than usual.</p>
<p>“That’s incredible,” Vanessa breathed, focusing back into the organ. Even beating at a rate abnormal for his build, it struck her that his heart sounded quite a bit stronger than that of any regular human. Her superhuman senses picked up no traces of damage from his accident, either—only a perfectly regular sequence that seemed steady enough to keep its rhythm for eternity. She found her eyes drifting shut, mesmerized by the sound of her friend’s life.</p>
<p>Daring a glance down to the heroine, John noticed that her eyes had drawn closed, youthful features a picture of serenity. Despite himself, he found his gaze tracing the soft lines of her face, rounded features with only the faintest hints toward her toughness and skill in combat. He watched how the lighting in his lab struck blonde highlights through her golden brown hair, soft waves seeming to shimmer with every shift of her head. His fingers tightened on his hips to resist the urge to wrap his arms around her, to hold her close and run his fingers through her hair. It would be ridiculous to deny what he had admitted to Valerie, sitting in his car outside the coffee shop that day, but the current need for Spectre and Emerald Dream’s vigilant presence didn’t allow time for his personal issues. And yet, standing here, with her so close...</p>
<p>A sharp uptick in John’s pulse had barely stirred Vanessa from her reverie when chilled hands seized her shoulders and pushed her back, the silence that abruptly replaced the steady beat jarring to her keen senses. Her eyes jumped to John’s face, noting with mounting concern that his own were downcast, dark brows knit together. Fortunately for him, the harsh lighting sufficiently hid the hint of a blush that had darkened his thin cheeks. “John, are you okay?”</p>
<p>John released her shoulders to hastily refasten the buttons of his flannel. “I- yeah, uh... sorry, it’s- it’s nothing, really, just seemed like- never mind.” He couldn’t help the high-pitched half-chuckle that escaped him, fully recognizing just how painfully awkward he was being.</p>
<p>Vanessa frowned. “Are you sure? You seem a little... well, spooked.”</p>
<p>“Well, we really don’t have a whole lot of time right now, with everything going on throughout the city. If you’re still curious, maybe Martin can teach you a thing or two, once the current crisis has been dealt with. Right?” John tried for a reassuring smile, but he could tell from the look on her face that it came out a bit strained.</p>
<p>“Sure.” Vanessa wasn’t entirely sure she believed him, but she’d let the matter slide for the time being. If it was truly urgent, he’d tell her.</p>
<p>“Anyway—” John stepped back, angling a shoulder toward the steel-plated gateway behind him— “while we’re here, would you like a tour of my portal?”</p>
<p>The reminder of her earlier curiosity easily diverted Vanessa’s attention from her friend’s odd behavior, but even as John demonstrated the function of his unearthly invention, the sound of his heartbeat never faded from her mind, nor did the feeling of his fellow heroine’s head pressed to his chest fade from John’s.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>hi I'm aromantic and writing mushy stuff is hard ^^"<br/>these dorks have no social skills, none at all<br/>I love them but c’mon just kiss already</p></blockquote></div></div>
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